S. Sudanese girls at risk of underage marriage
In a report published to coincide with International Women’s Day, Human Rights Watch said that many South Sudanese girls were forced into marriage by their poverty-stricken parents.
The report described how girls as young as 12 were married off by their parents.
The figure is one of the highest in the world.”
According to Gauri Van Gulik, a Global Advocate at Human Rights Watch, 48 percent of South Sudan’s girls marry between 15 and 18. The figure is one of the highest in the world,” she said. Forced marriage remains a common practice, especially among cattle herding communities.
In March 2011, 18-year-old Akoey Barach was killed by her relatives in Kolnyang Payam in Jonglei State after she refused to marry the man chosen by her parents.
The government must make sure that laws are enacted to bring to book people who perpetrate any form of atrocities against women,” Ulea Hariet, a Project Officer with the Organization for Nonviolence and Development (ONAD) said.
Most parents these days care about money and not what their children feel about the future.” Hariet said in an interview with The Niles.
Forced marriage is unconstitutional in South Sudan but the country does not have age limit for marriage, nor any legal framework to punish offenders.
Palek Mathew, Executive Director of the South Sudan Women Empowerment Network, said most women sought legislation imposing women had to marry aged 18 and above.
Women in the states were even proposing that the marriage age be lifted to between 20 and 25,” she added.
The constitution only specifies consent” as the mode to regulate marriage between two partners.
Most parents these days care about money and not what their children feel about the future.”
Early marriages have forced girls to leave school at a young age but also exposed them to increased poverty according to the report. Meanwhile, the practice raises the risk of medical conditions like Fistuala, which affects girls who give birth at a young age.
Child marriage has a significant negative impact on women and girl’s awareness of their human rights including their right to health and education, physical integrity and right to marry only when they are able and willing to give their free consent,” the report says.
While addressing people celebrating the global women’s day in Juba, UNMISS representative Ruth Kibiti called on girls to embrace education and shun illiteracy. At present, 15-year-old girls in South Sudan are more likely to die in childbirth than attend school.
She urged for attitudes to change, saying men should reject women who have not gone to school.
As men in South Sudan, don’t accept to marry a woman who is not educated, it is a burden in your house,” she said.
